Sean Parnell, a Republican candidate running for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania, said Wednesday the Keystone State is “ground zero” for the Biden administration’s “war on the energy industry.”
Parnell spoke with Alex Marlow, host of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily and author of Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, about President Joe Biden’s ostensibly environmental agenda and the domestic energy industry.
“Our energy independence is something that is unbelievably important,” Parnell stated. “I sort of look at this issue in two tranches. … There’s a moral component to it. When we’re not energy independent, it costs more to fill up your car. Everyone that’s listening to this show feels that pain, right now. It also costs more to heat your home, and it disproportionally affects middle-class, lower-income Americans.”
He continued, “[Energy independence] is also a significant national security issue, as people are seeing right now. The gas shortage in this country is something that we haven’t seen since the Carter days.”
LISTEN:
“When we are not energy independent — I’m talking about natural gas, hydraulic fracturing right here in Pennsylvania — that’s what makes us energy independent. That made us energy dependent under President Trump — it empowers other countries like China and Russia, because Russia is now a net energy exporter of natural gas,” Parnell added. “It’s bolstering their economy when we’re not energy independent.”
Parnell noted left-wing policies framed as “green” measures undermine Pennsylvania’s energy industry. The Biden administration regularly frames fossil fuel consumption as a driver of “global warming” in the context of what it says is a “climate crisis.”
Destruction of energy and manufacturing jobs is a feature of Democrats’ “climate change” policies, Parnell observed.
Parnell stated, “I hate cliché phrases, but Biden’s war on the energy industry, ground zero for that is right here in Pennsylvania,” Parnell stated. “Look no further than the U.S. steel plant in Western Pennsylvania in the Mon Valley, a $1.5 billion plant [with] over 10,000 jobs lost, sacrificed on the altar of green energy.”
The U.S. became a net energy exporter during President Donald Trump’s tenure. “In 2019, total U.S. energy exports were greater than total energy imports, and the United States became a net total energy exporter for the first time since 1952,” noted the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Fracking is central to Pennsylvania’s economy, noted Parnell. Pennsylvania is the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas, according to the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development.
“Pennsylvania had a total of 269,031 traditional energy, energy efficiency, and motor vehicle jobs across the state in 2019. These jobs accounted for 4.5 percent of the overall statewide workforce as of the last quarter of 2019,” determined a state-produced report on Pennsylvania’s energy industry.
Parnell remarked, “[Fracking] is a major economic pillar right here in Pennsylvania. It boosts everything from manufacturing to trucking to restaurant businesses to home ownership, and we are just basically suffocating or economy.”
“A ban on fracking is a wet blanket on the Pennsylvania economy,” he added. “We want more people working in this state, not less, and the Biden agenda in the first hundred days, I mean my gosh, people in Pennsylvania, their taxes are rising, our debt and deficit are skyrocketing, our border is flooded, and our energy industry is being crushed.”
Parnell said, “My number one mission in Pennsylvania from a policy standpoint is to rebuild this economy. We need more jobs in Pennsylvania, more good-paying jobs. People who work hard for a living and earn a good-paying wage should feel safe and secure in that and be able to be prosperous here in Pennsylvania. Protecting those jobs and making sure we’re not losing multi-billion dollar facilities for U.S. steel is going to be a major priority for me.”
“My mission right now is to protect and preserve the American way of life,” he concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.